JM Deblois reviewed Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Review of 'Lolita' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A good book is always the type you have to read many times. It's not always, but it's usually the case.
Lolita is a marvelous product of prose-writing. More than that, however, is the soul of a love story "crossed by the stars". It's not an easy read, as the images melt so seamlessly it gets one lost on occasion. That's the point. That's what writing is supposed to be, I guess, for the purposes of the great Vladimir Nabokov. The walls of creative writing broke down in his prose, and, as a millenial, I have only discovered it.
No, it's not an easy read, but for the reader itself, it's a test of character of gaining substance amid a meticulous style. Humbert's meditations on love, life, and his darling Lolita looks, at first, a prelude to erotic adventures. But no, no, mistaken was the reader for such perceptions that the world has posed on books like this!
Was it a love story? Was it, for all intents and purposes, a classic? That is for you to decide. Because however phantasmal the phallic fantasies of a 40-something metafictional character, - ladies and gentlemen of the jury - the judgment remains into your hands.